


The Realization of Haruki Suzumiya

by HuuskerDu



Series: Haruki Suzumiya [1]
Category: Suzumiya Haruhi Series, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu | The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, F/M, Genderbending, Suzumiya Haruhi no Seitenkan, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 04:40:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 17,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuuskerDu/pseuds/HuuskerDu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It has been 8 years since Kyon made his fateful decision to leave the world of <i>The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya</i>. Kyon and Haruhi have since married. Suddenly they are brought into a world where Kyon meets his younger female counterpart. Something has gone horribly wrong, and Kyonko is terrified. Kyon wants desperately to save his younger sister, but how?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Quiet Life

**Author's Note:**

> Kyonko is such a fascinating character. The sassy snarker is purely a fan-fiction creation, never appearing in any anime, and yet her looks and character are remarkably consistent. (Do a search in Google Images for 'Kyonko' and you will see what I mean.)
> 
> Early on it will seem like I am putting poor Kyonko through the wringer, but there is a very good reason for this. She gets better quickly and the story becomes quite fun. See the Epilogue for the explanation (spoilers).
> 
> This is the first story in a series. The other stories include _The Final Act of Haruki Suzumiya_ and _The Memories of Haruki Suzumiya_. For the links to the other stories click on my handle at the top (HuuskerDu). Read this story first to avoid spoilers.
> 
> This story assumes that you have seen, at minimum, the first 6 chronological episodes of _The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya_ (2009) and the film _The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya_ (2010).
> 
> Yuki x Kyon x Haruhi; Yuuki x Kyonko x Haruki

**Disclaimer:**

**I do not own the Haruhi Suzumiya series. This is a work of fan fiction.**

* * *

**Chapter 1: A Quiet Life**

It was a beautiful summer day in August when I ceased to exist.

On that fateful day I was busy downstairs working at the computer in my home office. I was sitting in my swivel chair pondering how to make my client's website work with the quirks of Internet Explorer. Regression testing is such a pain sometimes. Still, I was confident I would finish by the contract deadline.

Shamisen jumped up on my lap. "Down boy. I'm working." He responded and went off to explore the rest of the basement.

Upstairs, Haruhi had silently let herself in with the key. She quietly dropped her suitcases, took off her shoes, and crept downstairs. As usual I spotted her reflection in the computer monitor as she snuck up behind me. She coiled herself like a cobra, lunged, and grabbed my shoulders.

I feigned surprise. "Whaah! I told you not to do that!"

I let her flip my chair back so I was facing the ceiling. She gave me an upside down kiss. This time I had remembered to first set the latch on the dang swivel so I wouldn't flip over. I didn't want another concussion.

She was so predictable sometimes.

And I loved her for it.

"How was your business trip?"

"Good! They even discussed an option for a sequel. But I don't understand why they wanted to hire their own screenwriter instead of letting me write it." I did, but remained silent.

Later we ate dinner in the kitchen breakfast nook. I knew Haruhi would want to celebrate so I had planned and prepared a special meal.

It had taken me a half day of scrounging around the Kyosho market to find the all ingredients. I spent six hours slow cooking on the grill, running upstairs from my basement office to turn the rack every few minutes. Cooking Texas style dry BBQ is a pain, but it was so worth it.

"Kyon, this is really good. You've outdone yourself."

"Thanks. The secret is the spice rub."

"Mmmm.. what is in it?"

"I'll never tell."

My wife looked at me like a tiger eyeing its prey.

"I have ways of making you talk."

"Do your worst."

As Haruhi bent down to attack her fourth rib, I reflected on how wonderful my life had become.

It was a quiet life. After several years of my complete cluelessness, Haruhi finally rammed it through my thick skull that she loved me, though it took an act of god (literally) for me to finally realize it. Looking back I couldn't believe how oblivious I was. That whole experience was a remarkable story in itself [ _The Courtship of Haruhi Suzumiya_ -Ed].

After we finally confessed our feelings towards each other, I helped Haruhi to permanently suppress her unconscious god-like reality-warping powers that were triggered by her dreams. We were soon engaged, and by the following year we had gotten married and settled down. She wasn't ready for children yet, but I could wait.

I've always wondered, who, if anyone, had given her those god-like powers in the first place.

The SOS Brigade had long since disbanded. We met annually, on Tanabata, for a reunion at the café outside of North High. During those reunions I would feel a pang of nostalgia.. those crazy times, the thrill, the fun, the sheer terror (ok that not so much). But we were adults now, and life has a tendency to get in the way. After the last reunion we agreed that we would get together every 5 years.

At that moment the doorbell rang. I got up. "I'll get it."

I looked through the window. Yuki Nagato was at the door. I hadn't seen her since the last reunion.

Yuki Nagato was an alien, a Humanoid Interface. She was the ambassador to Earth from a very alien alien, a great universe-spanning entity that was so alien that it literally could not communicate with mere humans using language or symbols. It was an unimaginably powerful group intelligence called the Data Integration Thought Entity.

The Data Integration Thought Entity had sent Yuki Nagato to Earth to observe Haruhi. It was because it was fascinated with her. It was also because it was terrified of her, with very good reason.

I opened the door. Yuki was standing there, perfectly still, with her yellow-gray eyes staring right at mine. I have always been fascinated by those striking eyes, which were beautifully framed by her lavender-white hair. She had not aged at all, of course. Her delicate face wore the same blank expression that it always had: impassive, emotionless, and absolutely unreadable by anyone.

Except me.

After all these years I was still probably the one human who knew her and understood her best. It had been eight years since we were.. close. More than close. She was my guardian angel and protector, my closest ally in dealing with Haruhi and her crazy powers. She had saved my life so many times. I owed her so much. I had shared my closest secrets with her. I had trusted her more than anyone else in the world.

Actually, I still do. And I will never be able to repay the huge debt that I owed her. That is probably the biggest regret in my life.

Eight years ago, after I delivered my ultimatum to the Data Integration Thought Entity, I asked Yuki if there was any way to prevent her from becoming unstable again. We met at her apartment several times to discuss it, in secret. Those little talks, sitting on her couch, became the most intimate series of conversations that I have ever had, or probably ever will have.

At some point during our quiet discussions something must have happened to Yuki. I think it was triggered by something I said off handedly, or maybe it was cumulative. I was never quite sure what it was exactly. But somehow she had an epiphany.

Then a miracle happened.

What happened next I will never tell. Two weeks were as long as we dared. For safety it should have been shorter.

We kept it quiet. We both had a mission. The universe was at stake.

Not just because of the danger if Haruhi ever found out (though I think she could probably handle it now), but because I made a solemn promise to Yuki, and it was I promise I bloody well intended to keep. I will never be able to repay the huge debt that I owed her, but I could do at least that much.

At the end of those two perfect weeks I worried that she would become unstable again. But she never did. Afterwards I would sometimes pull her aside and quietly query her status. She always reported it was nominal. I believed her; she would never tell me a direct lie.

Once I asked her if she had a theory about why the glitches, the error data, never re-appeared. She replied with a bunch of techno-gobbledygook. It was her usual way of avoiding giving me an answer to a question, so I didn't press it. But looking back on it now, I think the answer was simple: She wanted her beloved to be happy.

Nagato remained silent.

"Yuki, what is it?"

Then I noticed.. something. Her eyes shifted down a few degrees for a fraction of a second, then they looked up at me again. It was subtle but I could tell something was wrong.

"Emergency mode. You and Haruhi need to come with me immediately."

Crap.

I was not going to make the contract deadline after all.


	2. A Message From Another Universe

**Chapter 2: A Message From Another Universe**

"Haruhi!", I yelled behind me, "Nagato is at the door. She's in emergency mode!"

To her credit Haruhi bolted from her chair without any hesitation. She ran to the door, the excitement glittering in her eyes.

"Woo hoo! This is just like old times!"

Sigh, yeah.

Nagato turned and walked quickly toward the street as we both tried to keep up. I don't think either of us remembered to lock or even close the door behind us.. oh well.

Yuki was moving fast. I walked quickly but was already somewhat out of breath. Haruhi did a leisurely jog with her shorter legs. She was still in great shape.

"Nagato," I huffed, "you want to explain it now? It might save time."

"I received a message from myself. It is an urgent summons for both of you."

"Wait, you got a message from yourself?"

"Yes, the transmission code prefix was encrypted using my private key. It could only have been sent from myself."

"Ah, you mean you got a message from yourself from the past or from the future, right?" I pulled out my cell phone. "Maybe I should call Asahina?"

"No, the displacement is not temporal. The message was transmitted via a high-dimensional deformation of the spacetime continuum between two disjoint realities."

Haruhi was able to translate the Yuki-speak faster than me. "You mean another universe?"

"Yes."

"That is so cool!"

Hoo boy. Whenever she says that.. it is never good.

Yuki continued her explanation. "The message included the data necessary to create a temporary hyperspace conduit. The energy required was.. considerable."

I noticed the pause. "How considerable?"

"It required the implosion of at least five G-type stellar masses."

"Wait, you mean you blew up five suns just to send this message to yourself?"

What could possibly be that urgent?

"It was more than a message. It included the data for creating a hyperspace conduit."

"A conduit?"

"Yes, a temporary one. It will allow us to shift approximately 200 kilograms of matter into the disjoint reality for a limited period of time. That is sufficient for the three of us."

Oh yay, we're going on a trip out of town. Waaaay out of town.

"The stellar implosions are powering the conduit. However it will not be stable for very long."

"How long?"

"Roughly 72 hours."

Three days. So whatever it is that we had to do so urgently, we had only three days to do it.

"What happens if we stay too long?"

"I will arrange so that you will automatically be returned before the conduit collapses. The risk should be.. acceptable."

Uh oh, there was that pause again. Apparently whatever the reason for the summons, Yuki felt it was serious enough to accept some risk to our lives.

I also could not fail to notice that Yuki was not disclosing to us the full content of the message, about why exactly we needed to go to this alternate universe. It was probably something she did not want Haruhi to hear.

We finally arrived in front of Yuki's apartment building. I was bent over wheezing, with shin splints in my legs. Dang it, why didn't we just take a taxi?

She said, "Please wait here. The transfer nexus for the hyperspace conduit is nearby. I need to pinpoint it."

She slowly walked away in the general the direction of the garage. This was my opportunity to find out what was really going on. While Haruhi remained behind (looking around like a kid searching for Santa Claus) I took the opportunity to sidle up to Yuki and whisper, "Ok, what's up?"

"I'm very sorry but I cannot tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because I asked myself not to."

"What?"

"I'm sorry. It is very distressing to me."

"But you know the reason, right?"

"Yes."

That stopped me in my tracks. At least it was something. If this was some kind of trick or deception she would know. It also meant she must agree with her other self's reasoning about the urgency of the mission.

But she refused to tell me. Now _that_ was very odd. No, it was incredible.

Yuki and I kept no secrets from each other. It was the whole basis of our relationship, complete and mutual trust. What could possibly be so important that she would refuse to share it with me, even privately?

It had to be something that she felt would harm me.. something that would harm me so badly that it was better to withhold it from me.

I was starting to get really worried.

Yuki called us over, "Stand here."

We stood together in a tight circle and waited. Yuki remained motionless. Nothing was happening.

Haruhi started to fidget.

Apparently Yuki was busy calculating trajectories, or coordinates, or whatever the heck she needed to do to flip us through this conduit thing. I had a brief vision of Wile E. Coyote pulling back a giant sling-shot to fling himself across a canyon to the catch the Road Runner.

While we waited my mind started to drift. Haruhi crossed her arms and started to sway back and forth, lightly bumping my side on each swing.

I began to idly wonder what this alternate universe would be like. Were we going to meet our evil counterparts, like on that episode of Star Trek, the one with the bearded Spock?

Humm, I bet I would look pretty good wearing a beard myself. Evil Kyon! And how about evil Haruhi? She'd wear a dagger on her belt, and she'd show off her bare midriff in that slinky outfit that Uhura wore. Haruhi still had great abs.

I began to have lewd thoughts about my wife. That would be so totally hot! Wait, an _evil_ Haruhi? Brrrr.. nevermind. How about an evil Yuki? NO. That's enough, stop.

At that moment the bottom fell out of the world.


	3. Arrival

**Chapter 3: Arrival**

It was.. non-existence. Yuki later explained to me what had happened.

To cross between two universes meant that for a moment we literally did not exist in _any_ universe. It wasn't like death. Death was simple in comparison. In death at least your body still existed. And there was still a _you_ that someone could at least point to, even it was only your grave. And you would be remembered. Your loved ones would still hold you in their memory.

Non-existence meant just that. You no longer existed in that universe. You never were, you never are, and you never will be. Until we returned back home to our original universe it would be like that we never existed there at all.

There was never a Haruhi born there, never a.. me there. It chilled my soul.

So our original universe would change during the time we were gone. It would revert when we returned.

Wait, didn't Koizumi have some crazy theory that Haruhi actually created our universe? What would happen if the universe's Creator left it? Could we even return back? Yuki would never have attempted the transfer if that could possibly happen. Or maybe it was a calculated risk she was willing to take. To risk an entire universe.. Dang it, why was this trip so important anyway?

Existence suddenly returned.

And it was cold.

We were standing in the same spot just outside the apartment garage. It was snowing. I didn't have my coat or scarf. Yuki could have at least warned us about the weather.

She walked out of the circle. "Come inside. We need to meet with myself before we can proceed further."

She dialed her apartment number, 708. There was a click and someone was listening on the other end.

"We are here."

There was no response. The door merely buzzed open and we proceeded inside. We went up in the elevator.

It then occurred to me that in a few moments there was going to be two Yukis standing in her apartment. We might not be able to distinguish them.

"Nagato? We might need a way to tell you two apart. Let's call you Nagato A and the other one Nagato B."

"That will not be.. necessary."

"Hmm. Okay."

We walked up to the door and it opened. Yuki and Haruhi went in first. From my angle I wasn't able to see the occupant yet.

I could hear Haruhi inside. She squeeed like a little girl. Oh no, this cannot be good.

I entered the room.

"Welcome."

At this point I really feel that I need to apologize to my readers. My reaction was entirely inappropriate. It was rude. I felt really bad about it afterwards. I later apologized to both Yu.. uh. I mean..

Anyway, I laughed my fool head off.

He was a tall.. man. Very tall for a Japanese person, possibly 6 feet, 185 centimeters. He had the same purple-white hair as Yuki. He was wearing the same reading glasses.

His hands were large. They looked like they could crush coconuts. He was wearing a North High jacket so I couldn't clearly see the rest of his physique, but I guessed he could probably benchpress me one handed.

"I am Yuuki Nagato."

His voice was soft, softer even than Yuki's own quiet monotone. The pitch or register was quite a bit lower, but it was hard to tell exactly because his voice was almost a whisper.

He bowed formally.

His every move was graceful. Despite his imposing size there was a kind of.. gentleness about him. The overall effect was one of quiet but enormous power combined with a peaceful serenity.

I bet this guy has his own fan club with the girls at North High. He probably has to beat the them all off with a stick.

Yuuki turned and faced Yuki.

"There is a time factor. It would be best if we synchronized."

That made sense. Yuki and Yuuki could quickly share information that way.

Yuki turned towards him, "I refuse."

"Reason?"

"You would become unstable."

"I see."

Oops. I forgot about our little shared secret. The last thing we needed was another Humanoid Interface to go wonky and mess up another universe. Even an alternate one. And that kind of information.. what we shared.. uh yeah, let's just let that one drop, shall we?

Feed that kind of data into him and he'd probably crash permanently with the Blue Screen of Death.

Granted, synchronization now would be.. unwise. But Yuki's epiphany, whatever it was, might be helpful for this big guy to learn some day. I mean if he got into a similar situation.. if he someday developed feelings, it would avoid another universe from getting messed up. And it would prevent a lot of grief, both for him and his.. partner?

Wait a second. Who? Partner? Wait..

Yuuki turned in my direction.

"Kyon and Haruhi need to meet with Kyonko as soon as possible. She requires their immediate assistance."

Kyonko..? She?

Haruhi was ready to burst. She clapped her hands and jumped. "This. Is. So. Cool!"

Meanwhile I went dizzy. Haruhi propped me up to prevent my fall. She refused to allow me to ruin her moment of pure joy.

* * *

As we headed towards North High, my mind began to furiously review the facts and deductions that I been able to gather during the past 20 minutes.

If the pattern continues then this is a world where our genders have been flipped. That means there's a male Yuki (Yuuki), a female Kyon (Kyonko), and as I quickly learned, a male Haruhi (Haruki).

Haruhi immediately demanded to hear everything there was to know about her male counterpart. Yuuki answered her persistent questions in his soft monotone while we walked quickly towards the school.

It was fairly late in the day and classes would be letting out soon.

Yuuki walked even faster than Yuki, dang it. I really needed to get back in shape. And the snow pouring into my summer loafers didn't help matters. At least my strenuous bodily exertion helped keep me warm sans jacket.

And I needed time to think.


	4. First Meeting

**Chapter 4: First Meeting**

We were heading towards the school. That meant that there was probably an SOS Brigade, with Haruki as its leader.

And that meant that our counterparts were still in high school. That would mean a roughly 6 to 9 year time differential behind our own universe.

Would the sequence of events in this universe be the same as ours?

The initial events must be similar or we wouldn't need this meeting.

I imagined a male version of Ryoko Asukara (Ryou?) lunging after a female version of me with a blade. As a man that psycho would probably have wielded a katana or something. I bet he probably would have tried to decapitate the poor girl.

Even if the initial conditions were similar, wouldn't the differences grow over time? Events would eventually diverge.

Say, what was the date exactly? It could be really important. I interrupted Yuuki's monologue to ask.

He informed me that it was November 10 of their first year. That means that 'now' was about 8 years ago by my own reckoning. Kicking the snow out of my left loafer, I couldn't remember if there was an early winter that particular year.

Ok, November.. that was pretty early in the timeline. Haruki would have formed the SOS Brigade by then. The computer and everything else would be in place in their clubroom. My female counterpart should have already met all the other members and know their secret identities. Most importantly she should know by now about Haruki's crazy power.

Let's see, did I kiss Haruhi in her 'dream' by that point in time? I think I did. So assume that also happened.

And it means that Yuuki hasn't gone bonkers yet. That was fortunate. Assuming the pattern continues that would happen on at 4:18 AM on December 18, about five weeks from now.

That whole experience was awful. Waking up in that changed world was the lowest point in my life. I almost went insane. Nobody should be allowed to suffer like that.

I should probably warn her about it.

Is that why I'm here? To give my younger.. sister.. some guidance and mentoring from her.. big brother?

That must be it! That's why I'm here. It made perfect sense.

Kyonko is the key to keeping Haruki stable, just like I was with Haruhi. She and I would meet and shake hands. We'd have a nice brother-sister chat over lunch. I would tell her things she needed to know. Things like, "If Haruki disappears, go visit Kouyouen Academy."

Problem solved.

Heck, we could wrap this up in one day. Easy. Afterwards Haruhi and I could play tourist and check out the sights for the remaining two days.

I began to relax.

As my mind wandered I began to think about the other brigade members. Humm. A female Itsuki Koizumi (Itsuko?) That image made me grin. The girl would be beautiful, with a Stepford smile as fake a three dollar bill. If Koizumi met her he'd probably fall in love with himself.

A male Mikuru Asahina? Probably a shy pretty boy.. I bet Haruki likes to dress him up in a butler uniform and make him serve tea.

And what about Haruki himself? I listened carefully as Yuuki described Haruki to Haruhi. An image of him began to form in my mind.

I frowned. It wasn't a nice picture.

I remembered Haruhi when we first met: an incredibly self-centered and bossy girl who gave little or no thought about the feeling of others. Someone who was filled with her arrogance and sense of self importance. With wild delusions about finding aliens, time travellers, and espers.

Of course they weren't really delusions. But still.

As any girl will tell you, most guys are jerks. Now layer Haruhi's personality on top of that base. The jerk factor would probably go to eleven.

Yuuki was careful to be neutral and strictly factual in his description of Haruki. But nevertheless from the description the guy sounded like a complete asshole.

We arrived at the brigade room. Yuuki opened the door without knocking.

Kyonko was sitting at a table with Koizumi. They were playing chess. None of the other Brigade members were present.

I had Itsuko Koizumi pegged perfectly. Later, after I returned home, I kicked myself for not thinking of bringing back a picture to show Itsuki. He would have pasted it on his bathroom mirror and kissed it every morning.

Kyonko looked up. "So there they are."

Haruhi rushed forward and gave Kyonko a big hug where she sat.

"You're so cute!"

Needless to say I was more than a little uncomfortable about this.

It wasn't the hug that bothered me. I expected Haruhi to do something like that. No, what bothered me was Kyonko's reaction to Haruhi's ambush.

What did I expect really? For her to roll her eyes? Or grimace? Or make some snarky comment? Probably the latter.

Kyonko looked stunned. She remained seated with her arms still at her side. She then slowly, tentatively, raised her arms and tried to give an awkward hug in return.

As usual Haruhi was overdoing things. I came forward and gently but firmly pulled Haruhi off her. I then tried to make my apologies.

"Uh, sorry about that."

"No, it's quite all right."

Haruhi and I stood together back against the wall near the window.

Kyonko slowly got up from the table. She folded her arms across the front of her cardigan, turned, and gave us a sideways glance. She was frowning somewhat. Then she slowly walked over towards us, her arms still crossed.

This was my first opportunity to get a good look at her.

She was rather short, a bit shorter than Yuki, although slightly taller than Itsuko. She was thin, almost scrawny, with no figure to speak of. It was difficult to tell because of her cardigan. (That was probably intentional.) She had nothing like Haruhi's athleticism.

Although she seemed physically frail it was obvious that she was no shrinking violet. There was something.. forthright? A kind of grim determination. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Call my own personality Type B - someone who reacted rather than acted. That was particularly true whenever Haruhi's craziness unfolded around me. Kyonko seemed more like.. a Type A personality. Like someone who would take the initiative if necessary, or take decisive action during a crisis. She was.. very interesting.

Her face was not unpleasant to look at. She had a small mouth above a somewhat angular chin, with a dainty nose and had deep brown eyes. The eyes were striking, probably her best feature. They had a piercing quality as she focused them on me, a depth that mine lacked.

The silence was getting awkward. I tried to make some conversation.

"Uh, well, you look nice. Really. I like the ponytail."

Haruhi glared and smacked me in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

She didn't hit me hard. I made an exaggerated show of rubbing my shoulder.

"He likes to use it as a handle to drag me around."

I twiddled my tie. "Same here."

"At least she doesn't carry you around like a football. Lately that's what he's been doing."

Her chess game interrupted, Koizumi laid her head on the table for a nap. She must already be bored. It wasn't like she was winning anyway.

Kyonko continued to watch us.

I looked back at her, then glanced down a bit. I couldn't help but notice the size of Kyonko's chest, or rather lack thereof.. she was flat as a washboard. As my gaze continued she caught me. Her frown intensified. Oops.

A bit embarrassed, I shuffled on my feet. She turned sideways again and sighed, "Let me guess.., your mom is a D-cup too, right?"

"Uh, yeah.."

"Dang it."

Apparently she inherited her genes from our father's side.

Haruhi leaned on me as she tried, and failed, to suppress a laugh. At least she had the sense to press her head in-between my shoulders to try to muffle it.

Haruhi continued to try and utterly fail for several seconds to stifle her giggles. Nice going, Haruhi. I rolled my eyes and waited until the fit finally stopped.

She then used her hands to push off me while turning around, wiping a tear out of her left eye. "Sorry.. You look cute, really you do."

After she apologized she leaned back against the wall, slightly leaning on me for support.

Meanwhile Kyonko was watching us like a hawk.

Women seem to have a radar for picking up on relationships. Me? I'm completely clueless about such things. That's a pity because it would have helped prepare me for what was about to happen next.

Kyonko's eyes rocked back and forth between us. She looked at Haruhi, then me, then back to Haruhi, then me. Even an idiot like me couldn't fail to miss the dawning realization in those deep brown eyes.

In hindsight I should have known how obvious it was. The indications were all there and plain to see - Haruhi's playful punch of my shoulder, our casual touching. Of how close we really were.

No doubt Kyonko was bemused. I waited for her to make some snarky comment, a really witty retort. Something sassy. I grinned and waited to hear what she would come up with. This should be good.

"No.. no way. No no no. No way! No!"

Wait, what?

The look on her face was one of pure terror.

"Not in this universe or any universe. Never!"


	5. Kyon Follows a Trail

**Chapter 5: Kyon Follows a Trail**

Kyonko slumped to her knees on the floor.

My brain went tilt. Looking at the position of my hands I must have unconsciously shifted my right over my left to hide the wedding ring.

Haruhi's eyes softened. She slowly walked towards the distraught girl with open arms, like she was approaching a wounded kitten. She bent over her.

To any outside observer her behavior would probably seem incredibly patronizing. But in this situation it was probably the right thing.

"It's okay honey. I know he can be scary sometimes. I was that way too once. He'll get better. I promise."

"Don't touch me."

"I'll talk to him today. I'll make sure he treats you better from now on."

My wife would never condone an abusive relationship.

"No, you don't understand! That won't work!"

"We'll help you. Protect you."

"You don't understand. It won't work!"

As I learned later, Haruhi simply did not realize the full extent of the problem.

Kyonko then picked herself up and fled the room.

Haruhi turned to follow. She took one step forward but then was jerked back. Surprised, she looked down to discover that her arms were being gently but firmly restrained by two Nagatos, one holding each arm. She struggled to get out of their grip.

Yuki said, "Stay here."

Yuuki said, "Please wait."

"Let me go!"

She struggled to wrest free from the grip of hands whose bones were made of titanium and molybdenum. She wasn't going anywhere.

Koizumi looked over in my direction. The Stepford smile was gone.

"Kyon, it's your turn."

My brain wasn't finished rebooting, but I willed myself out of the room anyway.

Several seconds had elapsed since Kyonko fled. I scanned up and down the hallway. Which way did she go? I looked up and down the hall again trying to decide. Then out the corner of my eye I glimpsed a moving shadow at the far stairwell, about 20 meters away. I rushed in that direction.

I went down one flight of stairs to the second level. The stairs continued down. Did she leave here or go down further? While I was standing there debating which way to run, I spotted the shadow moving two floors below. Down then.

This was the basement level of the school. There were no classrooms down here, just plant and equipment. I never saw this part of the school before. Asbestos covered pipes ran along the ceiling alongside steel conduit. I came to a pair of narrow hallways leading off in the four compass directions.

Now which way? The shadow went south.

I shouldn't be able to follow her like this. She could have easily fled down the stairwell long before I managed to reboot myself and get out of the brigade room. Those shadows were laying a trail like breadcrumbs.

So she was deliberately trying to lead me somewhere. She wasn't fleeing in a panic. Was this all just an act? What was she up to?

The hallway ended at what looked like an old engineer's office. There was a heavy steel desk, stained and somewhat dented, with a broken chair. There were steel brackets along the far wall for holding various tools, all empty.

The old office was now being used for storage. There were several boxes stacked along the nearer wall. They had various labels: toilet paper, flashlights, batteries, cleaning supplies, various chemicals.

The room was otherwise empty except for some trash strewn about. There was no other exit from this corridor.

It was like she vanished. She couldn't have doubled back and gotten behind me. She wouldn't have done that anyway if my theory was correct.

I continued to search around the room. I kicked the trash around. I searched the desk. Nothing. I checked the boxes. They were all sealed, except one of the cardboard lids on the topmost box of flashlights was open slightly. I pulled the lid up and peered inside. The flashlights were packaged in pairs with shrinkwrap. They were the latern type, the kind that took square batteries. One package was torn open and a flashlight was missing.

Humm. I looked back at the walls of the room. I slowly ran my hands along the empty tool wall. I noticed that one of the brackets had a broken seam, about two meters long. I pulled that bracket towards me. It was a hinge, and a hidden door creaked open.

I peered inside. It was dark. It probably led into some sort of maintenance bay.

I went back to the box of flashlights. I pulled the second flashlight out the open package. It already had a battery inside. I smiled inwardly. Smart girl.

I turned on the flashlight and approached the black void.

"I'm coming in. I'm alone."

I went inside. My guess about the room was correct. It about three meters square, with walls made of cinderblock. There were circuit breakers mounted on two walls and a fuse panel. The floor was broken and chalky.

She was sitting in the middle of the room in the dark on the broken floor. Her flashlight was turned off.

"Close the door behind you."

I did. I slowly sat down on the floor next to her, facing the same direction, being careful to keep a distance of at least a meter.

I avoided looking at her. I rested the flashlight upright on the floor in front of me so it reflected off the bare ceiling. It lit up the small room pretty well.

I pulled up my knees under my chin. The chalky floor in front of us was broken into hundreds of small bits. She absent mindedly picked up one piece and threw it at the cinderblock wall in front of us. It left a grey-white mark. I then noticed that the wall had hundreds of those grey-white marks on it.

"Ok, I'm here. What do you need?"

"I give up. I'm out of ideas."

"This is a pretty good hiding place."

"It doesn't matter. He'll find me here soon. He always does."

I thought about that. With his powers of course he would.

"No matter where I go he finds me. I could leave the planet and he'd still find me."

"Yeah, but that's not the problem, is it?"

"No."

So what was the real problem? We were reaching the moment of truth.

"Look, whatever this is, I can help you fix it. I brought along with me some pretty powerful backup. The strongest forces in the universe are sitting in a room three floors up from here. And they're all going to help me to help you."

For the first time she looked up at me.

"Whatever this is we'll take care it. Okay? We'll do it together."

"All right."

I re-ran through my mind the several disturbing possibilities. Let's just get this over with.

"I'm going to ask you a series of questions now, okay? Just tell me the truth. Remember we're all here now and we're going to help you."

"Okay."

"Has he sexually molested you?"

"No."

"Has he hit you?"

"No."

She made a wry grin, "But I've slugged him pretty good a couple times."

Well that was the usual double standard, wasn't it? If a girl hits a guy, it's no big deal. But if a guy hits a girl it's a felony.

What else, humm..

She sighed and stood up. She began to unbutton her cardigan sweater.

"There's a reason I don't take this off anywhere, except in my own room."

She removed the sweater to reveal the white sailor blouse underneath.

She actually had a bit of a figure. She was lithe, like a ballerina, and didn't look bad at all. Without the sweater she could probably turn the boys' heads if she wanted to.

I was sitting to her right. She turned around so that I could see her left side. On that side the blouse had some kind of faded blue/purplish stain on it. It seemed to start from under her skirt and ran all the way up to her armpit. It was the kind of stain that happens if you accidentally mix your blue jeans in the washing machine with a white shirt.

I then realized that it wasn't a stain but rather was something underneath the blouse that was showing through.

She then partially unzipped her skirt and pulled up the blouse on that side up to her armpit.

Her body was covered in a mass of bruises. The entire left side was a mottled mass of purple and blue, many overlapping.

"Before he used to just drag me around using my ponytail. Then a few days ago he switched to picking me up and carrying me around everywhere, like carrying a football.

"Kyon, I'm fragile.."

I remembered Haruhi's glomp on Kyonko when we first met, the way Kyonko's eyes widened. It was not because she was stunned or surprised; it was because of the deep physical pain of the hug.

Carried like a football.. she had mentioned that in our first meeting, didn't she? Yes, she did. Right after she said it Koizumi put her head on the table. Koizumi wasn't taking a nap.

She was hiding her tears.

And I recalled that Kyonko had started to watch us closely. She was trying to judge our reaction, to figure out how much we really knew.

I am going to kill that bastard. I don't care if he is the god of this universe or not. I'm going to kill him.


	6. Two Minds Make a Plan

**Chapter 6: Two Minds Make a Plan**

I allowed my anger to grow and wash over me unchecked. I clenched and released my fists. He is a dead man.

Kyonko looked up at me. "He doesn't know."

"What?"

"He doesn't know. Lately he picks me up like a sack of potatoes when he runs around. He doesn't know he's hurting me."

Her eyes looked down at the floor.

"He's just trying to have fun."

"Tell him. Show him."

"I can't. I told both Yuuki and Koizumi about it right away. Koizumi checked with her Organization. They believe that if I showed this to Haruki, the explosion of guilt, regret, and frustration would create a closed space that would envelop the whole planet."

I picked up a piece of chalk and chucked it at the wall.

"And even if Koizumi could somehow prevent that, it would still destroy my relationship with him. I wouldn't be able to keep him stable anymore."

"What about Yuuki?"

"He just disappeared. I didn't see him again until just now, when he brought you guys in. I think he went off to prepare whatever it was that brought you here."

"And Asahina?"

"I didn't tell him. But he suddenly quit the Brigade yesterday, so I think he found out somehow."

That explains why I haven't seen him.

"He had the right idea. Quit. Leave."

She gave me an annoyed look like I was stupid.

I sighed. "Right. You already tried that. He finds you."

Her frown changed to an indulgent smile, "It's okay, Kyon. I know you are only trying to help." She looked down at the floor in defeat, something I suspected did not come naturally to her. "If you have any other ideas I'd be glad to hear them."

I thought furiously to find another way to get her out of this mess but came up snake-eyes.

She smiled at me again. "Keep at it. We probably have at least one more day before he discovers me here."

She bent over and picked up her cardigan and gingerly buttoned it up. I saw her wince. Ugh, if it was that painful for her with the sweater merely pressing against her side, how could she possibly stand the pain when Haruki picked her up? Her inner fortitude must be incredible.

And I knew why. It was because she was protecting the whole world and she knew it.

I remembered back early in the SOS Brigade's first year when Haruhi started to become unconsciously jealous of the fact that I was paying too much attention to Miss Asahina. In reaction she had whisked away everybody in the whole world, leaving behind only the two of us like Adam and Eve. Haruhi believed she was only dreaming but it was real. And it was only with Nagato's carefully planted clue that I was able to coax Haruhi out of her dream state and make her 'wake up' and bring back the world again. That was a close call.

This was the same thing. Wait, no, this was actually worse. Haruhi was merely jealous, but Haruki would be wracked with feelings of guilt and self-loathing. How would his unconscious mind react to that much guilt? I couldn't even begin to imagine the awfulness of what his mind might do in self-retribution.

Kyonko was valiantly preventing her world from coming to an end. But I knew that eventually she would hit her pain-limit and either cry out involuntarily or pass out. And then the paramedics would come, and then Child Protective Services would take the photographs, and then they would confront Haruki with them, and then... it would all be over.

Argh! What could I do to save her?

I was forced to play my final trump card. I would simply make Kyonko disappear.

"Kyonko, come back with me to my universe. It would be like you never existed. He'll completely forget about you." That would solve the problem.

The hyperspace conduit was balanced for 200 kilograms. Adding Kyonko would put us just over the mass limit. It meant that someone will need to be left behind.

I knew who was going to volunteer to stay behind, and I didn't like it. But there was no other way. I put my hands in my pockets.

The worst part is that once I returned home I would forget her. It would be as if she never existed. She never was, never is, and never will be. I don't think I could bear to live on knowing that I left behind the woman that I trusted and respected the most. Actually, I would forget even that.

Kyonko shook her head. "No, I need to stay here. I'm the one that keeps him stable."

I was inwardly relieved.

"Well, uhm, crap, I give up."

"You see the problem."

I did see it. She was right. She couldn't show this to him.

We needed a way to get Haruki to back off somehow. And we needed do it in such a way that he wouldn't hate himself and cut off all contact with Kyonko.

This was a delicate situation. We needed to change Haruki's attitude and behavior towards her without causing him to suffer a major mental breakdown.

For starters, he had to somehow learn that what he was doing was harmful to her, but realize it in such a way that Kyonko herself is not making the accusation against him.

I raised my head and gave her a supporting look. "If only I had more time.. I might have been able to come up with a plan. Dang it! I'm only here for three days. After that your brother needs to leave town."

I stopped suddenly. I stared at her. There was unspoken communication between us. Her eyes were locked with mine.

"It would be a shame if my big brother flew in for the weekend and found out about this. I'd bet he'd be pretty pissed off."

I grinned evilly. (If only I was wearing a beard right now!) "I bet he would."

I picked up her hand and held it. "He has ever visited your home? Talked to our parents? Seen your little sister?"

"Little brother. He's a twerp."

"Right. But do you think he knows you only have the one?"

"Let me think. He often comes to the house to 'fetch' me. He bangs on the door and bellows. I don't think he's ever been inside past the foyer."

With my facial resemblance to her it would be plausible. More than plausible. I mean I really was her brother in the genetic sense.. she was basically me with the Y chromosome swapped for X. And the eight year time differential works too.

"Okay. Let me talk to Koizumi. I'll arrange with her to get your parents out of the house for the next couple days."

"Your timing is good. He's got a field trip scheduled for tomorrow to hunt for aliens."

And so in that little cinderblock room we continued to conspire together in our campaign of deception. The plan had an elegant simplicity, with the added benefit that most of it would actually be true.

One part of the plan was rather tricky. It was probably the hardest part, and I'd have to depend on Kyonko there. She would need to be pretty strong to do it. But I had faith in her.

"You need to stay here for now. Keep out of sight until tomorrow."

I got ready to leave and opened the door. "You need any food or anything?"

She looked at me demurely with a small smile. Haruhi was right. At that moment she really did look cute.

"No. And thank you."

I turned back before I left. "Hey, you're family."

* * *

I trotted back upstairs to the brigade room.

At that point I made a major error. I opened the door without knocking or listening first.

Yuuki was sitting in his chair by the window reading. Outside the window the sun was setting. Koizumi was sitting at the table pulling a loose thread out of her school uniform.

And Haruki was there.

He was sitting at the computer. He looked up at me.

"Who the devil are you?"

Oops.

He was tall and muscular, an athlete, though not as physically big as Yuuki. He had dark hair and brown-yellowish eyes. His school uniform was hopelessly rumpled. His shirt was untucked and the tie was loose.

He was wearing some kind of yellowish horizontal headband. It formed a thin circlet of gold around his head. It looked like the crown of a greek king. Or a greek god. The headband reminded me of Adrian Veidt, the character who was Ozymandias in _Watchmen_ (the comic, not the movie).

The headband had some orange writing on it, a combination of katakana and kanji. The orange-on-yellow background of the lettering made it difficult to make out from where I stood. Later I learned it read "SOS Brigade Leader."

Drat, he already got a good look at me. There was no way I could just say "sorry wrong room" and walk away now.

He stood up and walked over towards me. He squinted and began to look me over.

Think fast, Kyon, think fast! He was going to see me tomorrow anyway. There was nothing for it.

"Oh hey, hi. I'm Kyonko's brother. Have you seen her around at all? I'm looking for her."

Haruki posed like Superman with his fists on his waist. "You're her brother? Where is she?"

"That's what I just said, you idiot."

He frowned. "I haven't seen you before."

"Yeah I just got into town. I'm only here for a few days."

"Great! Where are you staying?"

Oh man. I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. I couldn't claim I was staying at my sister's house. He might go there or talk to Kyonko's parents. That would ruin everything.

Haruhi and I had not yet discussed where we were sleeping tonight. I assumed we would probaby crash over at Yuuki's apartment. But that wouldn't work either. And the last thing I wanted was for Haruki to see Haruhi.

I decided to tell the truth. "Like I said, I just got into town. I haven't booked a hotel yet."

"Hey, why don't you stay over at my place? Then we could search for Kyonko together!"

"No, I really couldn't."

"I insist! It's settled then!"

This was starting to get really bad.

At that point I'm ashamed to admit that I basically panicked. "Sorry, I really need to go. Bye!" I fled the room just like Kyonko did earlier.

I ran into the stairwell and went down to the first floor. I stopped and waited, but for some reason Haruki didn't try to follow me. I counted my lucky stars.

"Psst! Kyon!"

It was Haruhi. She was hiding under the stairs right below my feet.

"Haruhi.. did he see you?"

"I don't think so."

I let out a huge sigh of relief.

"Let's get out of here."

"Kyon, wait. We got a big problem!"

"Now what?" Add it to the list..

"Yuki suspects that Yuuki has become critically unstable."

"Wait, what?"

"She believes he's in love."

"What?..?"

It was only Day 1. And the day wasn't even over yet.


	7. A Second Problem

**Chapter 7: A Second Problem**

Haruhi went on ahead to Yuuki's apartment. She told me that Yuuki would meet us there as soon as his shift ended in the brigade room. He had seemed perfectly normal when I saw him sitting behind Haruki. But I knew that system instabilities in Humanoid Interfaces were not always obvious to see.

Apparently Yuki was already at the apartment. I trotted back downstairs to fetch Kyonko.

When I got to the engineer's office I could hear some faint humming beyond the hidden door. I knocked and opened it.

"Hey kid, I'm back. How you doing?"

Kyonko was sitting cross-legged on a tatami mat, munching on some potato chips. There were some empty soda cans and candy bar wrappers nearby. Typical teenage junk-food. She'd have to watch that when she got older. Haruhi had to put on me on a diet.

She was reading a book. I couldn't quite catch the title. I bet Yuuki gave it to her. She stopped her humming, closed the book, and beamed at me.

It was a beautiful smile. She bounced on the mat. It occurred to me that this was the first time I had seen her acting anything like a normal fifteen year old girl.

"I'm doing just fine! You didn't need to bring me anything."

I returned her big smile as I tried to marshal my thoughts. I knew she was going to ask me why I needed to drag her over to Yuuki's apartment tonight. Especially since we had such a big day planned for tomorrow; she knew she was going to need all the sleep she could get.

Yuuki's instability obviously had something to do with her. I had a pretty good idea what it was. I knew this was going to be awkward.

She must have detected something in my body language. Kyonko stood up, crossed her arms, and turned sideways to look at me.

"Ok, spill. What's wrong now? Did you run into Haruki or something?"

"Good guess, you win a kewpie doll. Yeah I did, but that's not the problem."

"He doesn't believe you're my brother?"

"No, it worked."

"Did he see Haruhi or Yuki?"

"No."

"And Haruki's alien-hunt still on for tomorrow?"

"As far as I know."

"And he's still looking for me of course."

"Yeah. The word 'obsession' comes to mind."

"Tell me about it. You still need to get my parents away? That's already been taken care of."

Part of the plan was for Koizumi to arrange to get her parents out of the house for the weekend. But it turned out it wasn't necessary. Kyonko had just gotten a call on her cell from her parents that an old friend of theirs had passed away earlier this afternoon.

The funeral was to be held in Okinawa; her parents would be gone for the whole weekend. Kyonko was supposed to watch her little brother until they returned.

Kyonko looked down. She was running through a mental checklist to see if we missed anything. "Kyon, if I'm not home then you'll need to hire a babysitter to watch that brat. Otherwise he'll destroy the house."

I nodded. Kyonko picked up some food wrappers, then walked closer.

"Okay, so what's the problem? It looks like all systems are go for tomorrow.. all lights are green. Right?"

"Yeah."

"And..?"

She knew I was stalling. She waited. She started tapping her foot.

"Well, it's about, uhm, Yuuki. It's probably really silly for me to ask you this, but you wouldn't happen to possibly or maybe have some kind of, well, relationship or anything like that with him do you?"

"What? No. He's a just a Humanoid Interface. My toaster has more personality."

"That's what I thought."

"Why are you asking this?"

"I need to take you over to his apartment right now. Yuki and Haruhi are already there."

"Why?"

And there it was. I had no good answer.

She stopped tapping. Her eyes looked into space. Then her voice softened.

"Ooohh.."

That's right, Kyonko. A six foot Humanoid Interface has a crush on you. You'll blush. You'll get shy. I waited for the inevitable reaction.

I was wrong. I wasn't ready for what happened next.

"Oh no, oh no.. I didn't. I did. crap. Crap. CRAP!"

She stomped her feet. Then she looked up at the ceiling. She closed her eyes tightly then opened them again.

She spun around two times. She jumped up and down.

"Idiot, idiot, I'm an idiot! Kyon, you can kick me now."

"Are you quite finished?"

"Yeah."

She lowered her voice again.

"Kyon, we have a big problem."

"So I'm starting to gather. You want to clue me in?"

She looked down. "I messed up.. This is embarrassing. How can I explain this.."

She took a moment to gather her thoughts.

"Kyon, have you ever seen an amateur horse riding show? Or a horse jumping competition?"

"Sure. Most of the riders are girls."

"That's right. Do you know why girls like horses so much?"

"Uhm.."

"A horse is a strong animal. When a girl rides a horse, she's interacting with it, guiding it. They work together, right?"

"Sure."

"And the horse responds. She pets it, strokes it, talks to it, there's a feeling of close friendship. Most importantly it's a safe relationship. That's why girls like them."

I understood. To a girl a horse is basically a male analog. One that is strong, silent, and safe.

I started to see where this was going.

"I was bored. A lot of the time we were sitting around in the brigade room with nothing to do. We were just spinning our wheels waiting for Haruki to arrive. Some days he would never show up at all. And I got tired of whipping Koizumi at chess all the time.

"Yuuki just sits and reads. So I started watching him. I'd prop up my head on my hands and gaze at him. You got to admit he's easy on the eyes. And he's a mystery.

"I'd watch the way he'd turn the page with those long delicate fingers, and how those legs moved when he got up to switch books. He's so graceful. I started to daydream.

"One day I got really bored. And I was feeling a little mischievous. So I stood up, put my hands behind my back and sauntered over behind him. I cooed 'whatcha reading?' and rested my chin on his shoulder to look at the page he was reading. Of course he did nothing.

"He never reacted. So I made it into a game. Sometimes when I got up behind him I'd rest my hands on his shoulders. Sometimes I'd muss up his hair. Sometimes I gave him a back rub."

She shoved her hands into the pockets are of cardigan and looked down.

"Then I started talking to him. Whenever we were alone together I'd babble. I was basically talking to myself really. It helped me to work out my thought processes, especially when dealing with Haruki."

I put my hands into my own pockets.

"Let me guess. You talked to him about your daydreams, your thoughts, your closest secrets. And you held nothing back."

Kyonko looked away.

"I thought he was safe."

"Kyonko.."

"I thought he was safe!"

She looked back at me. Her eyes were getting watery.

"So how bad is it?"

"Yuki's not sure, but she thinks it's pretty bad."

"I was hurting him.. he's so innocent.. I was torturing him.."

"It's not your fault. You didn't know."

"Yes it is. It's all my fault."

She took a deep breath and turned towards the door. She mumbled something, then nodded to herself. After a short meditation she rushed out of the room. I followed.

She went to one of the larger storage boxes and opened it. I noticed the box had a resealable flap. She pulled out a parka, scarf, mittens, boots.

I followed her upstairs. I had trouble keeping up. Normally she is probably as lazy as I am, but when motivated she can sure move fast. We reached the main entrance and went out to the street.

It was still snowing. There was a good wind blowing. The snow stung my eyes. I looked back at Kyonko. I couldn't see her face. With her parka hood zipped up so tight she looked like Kenny in _South Park_. I chuckled.

"What? I get cold easily."

"Let's go."

We walked together into the darkness in silence. I flapped my arms to try to stay warm.

She set a fast pace, and I was already huffing. Meanwhile I began to think.

If Yuki was right then it means that Yuuki has already gone completely around the bend. Back when Yuki broke down she borrowed Haruhi's powers and changed the world. If events were happening in the same sequence in this universe then it seemed likely to me that Yuuki would attempt to do the same thing with Haruki's powers.

And what did Yuki do exactly? First she transformed herself into a shy cute little bookworm that would catch my eye. She was fully human and had totally forgotten her prior existence. And she had also completely forgotten her crime and disposed of Haruhi's powers permanently. It would be a mundane world with no magic. She was kind of mousy, but she would have a hidden quality, an inner beauty, that I would find attractive. Then she moved all the chess pieces off the board except herself and me. Haruhi and Koizumi were moved to a different school. She allowed Asahina to remain because she was a junior so we never shared the same classes. Then she set up a scenario where I would inevitably get to know her and become friends. And then we would start to develop feelings for each other.

Finally, she erased her own memory of everything she had done. She was now a shy little bookworm and completely innocent. Literally.

And it had worked. When we first met she invited me to her singles-only apartment for a private meeting to discuss my joining her literary club at school. I was surprised that such a shy little bookworm would do that, to invite a strange boy to her home alone. Especially after I had accidentally scared her while I was trying to figure out what the heck happened to Haruhi and everyone else. Yuki's offer was innocent and sincere, and I accepted, but I must admit that I started to wonder about an ulterior motive. Then in her apartment she began to give me subtle unconcious signals as we drank tea and talked quietly together in private. I don't think she even realized herself what she was doing. And if it wasn't for Ryoko Asakura showing up unexpectedly at the apartment door, I don't know what might have happened. It was Yuki's gentle tug on my sleeve as I tried to leave her apartment that made me absolutely sure.

So I stayed with her and Asakura. I rolled my eyes as the three of us talked in Yuki's in apartment together. I then gave my excuses again to finally leave. Asakura decided to follow me out. She then arranged to ride down in the elevator with me. And during the elevator ride she gave me a seemingly friendly warning, that I had to be 'serious' if I were to pursue Yuki, or else she would never forgive me. She gave her warning with a cheerful smile.

It was not an idle threat. A few days later Ryoko Asakura would try to disembowel me with a large filet knife in the street, right in front of Yuki's eyes, while professing her mad devotion to the shy bookworm. And if it wasn't for some very fast intervention using time travel to stop her repeated stabbing and cutting she would have very nearly finished her gruesome and bloody task. Yuki was spattered with my blood from Asakura's knife attacks, frozen in shock and terror as she watched me about to die. I still don't know how I survived those terrible wounds.

I thought about it. The pain. It was horrible.

Then another horrible thought suddenly hit me. A thought that was, in its own way, even worse.

You see, I knew that Kyonko was rushing, right now, to meet Yuuki. She would rush up to him to beg his forgiveness and give him her heartful apology through her tears.

He would console her and tell her it was all right. And then, at some point, she would inevitably develop feelings for him. It would be the same feelings that I knew he already had for her.

I knew.

It already happened. Kyonko would fall in love with him. And it would be inevitable. For you see, Yuuki had stolen Haruki's powers and changed the universe. To _make_ it happen.

And he had done it. And he had done it before I had even stepped foot in this world.

He had done it.

Yuuki had already done it.


	8. Synchronization

**Chapter 8: Synchronization**

Of course. Everything would proceed per Yuuki's plan. I played out the scenario in my head. Kyonko would rush up to Yuuki. She'd hug him. She'd beg forgiveness. He'd serve tea.

Would he be human now? Probably. He would try to hide that fact until our team returned home. Or maybe he would not even know it himself, having erased it from his own mind. Or maybe he decided it would remain a titanium giant to protect her. Perhaps modified somehow. She was physically very fragile and still needed his protection. That last option seemed most likely.

I knew that Kyonko would return, in secret, to meet with Yuuki in his apartment to explain to him how to deal with his newfound emotions and to help him stabilize himself. The liaisons would be purely innocent at first. She and Yuuki would spend several quiet evenings together to drink tea at the table, then talk for hours on the couch, and do nothing more. The quiet chats would go on for several days. But then I knew that sooner or later something would inevitably happen, and things would proceed from there.

And it explained why Kyonko detested Haruki so much. And why I was brought here: to sever Kyonko's connection with Haruki. Yuuki would somehow arrange to sabotage our plan so that it would fail disastrously, and it would permanently destroy her relationship with Haruki.

It was all so obvious.

I knew.

"Uhm, Kyonko?"

"Yeah?"

"All that flirting you did with Yuuki.. did Koizumi and Asahina see it?"

"Yeah they did. It seems embarrassing now."

"Right. About that, please think carefully.. would you really, I mean really, flirt and prance around like that if they were watching you?"

"You know, now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't. I'm a bit ashamed about it really. I'm not sure what came over me."

"I think I know exactly what came over you."

"What are you implying? You think Haruki would use his powers to make me do that? That's silly."

I gave Kyonko an explanation of the events of December 18.

"You really think Yuuki would do that? Make it so I'd have a big guilt trip and then rush to see him?"

"I think it's possible. There's no way to know really. Yuki injected nanomachines into my body to protect me from the changes. That way I could remember everything before and after. We're unprotected now. There's no way to tell."

"I think you're wrong. Yuuki wouldn't do that to me. He'd never force me to do anything I wouldn't normally do against my will. He's not like that."

"Maybe. But what about Haruki? Yuuki might have arranged that too. I mean, how much you hate him."

"Wrong again. I don't hate him. Sure, he gets carried away sometimes, but I can handle him. His antics are fun. As annoying as he can be sometimes, I really do think of him as a friend. I really do. He just needs to remember that there is a sticker that's plastered on my forehead: 'Fragile, Handle With Care'."

I laughed.

"Maybe you're right. I'm just getting paranoid in my old age. Sorry to bring it up."

"No, it's good you're thinking about this stuff. You pick up stuff I miss."

"Likewise. Sometimes I don't think anything escapes your eye."

"Thanks."

"You know, we're a good team."

"Yeah."

* * *

We walked the rest of the way in silence under the falling snow.

Kyonko had refused to believe that Yuuki would force her into a relationship. I still privately disagreed with her opinion, but I decided I would keep my counsel. In just a few minutes from now I would carefully watch Yuuki interact with Kyonko and judge for myself. Then I would know.

We finally arrived at the apartment building. Haruhi answered the intercom and buzzed us in. We went up the elevator to 708.

Once inside I took off my loafers and knocked out the snow from between my toes. Kyonko unbundled herself from her cocoon.

I bent over and rubbed my feet. I looked over at her.

"You ever been here before?"

"Duh."

"Oh yeah, nevermind."

Yuuki was busy in the kitchen cleaning the dishes from after the meal. Haruhi and Yuki were sitting at the table in the main room. Haruhi was gesticulating wildly.

"Correlation ratios and chi-square whatsits? Standard deviations.. stop with the technobabble already! Just answer my question!"

"I already have."

"Is he or isn't he? It's a simple question!"

"No, it is not simple."

"Aarrgh!"

Kyonko and I joined them at the table. I looked over at my wife and teased her, "Your Nagato-speak translator not working today?"

She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Haruhi, it just means that Yuki doesn't want to answer your question at the moment. Let it go."

"Fine. So what's your take on all this?"

I glanced over at Kyonko. "We're not sure, but we think the answer is yes. And we definitely know the cause."

"Well?"

Kyonko clasped her hands together and then dropped her head down.

"It's my fault. I flirted with him terribly. I didn't know."

That stopped Haruhi in her tracks. There was an awkward silence.

Yuuki entered the room with the tea set. He placed a saucer and a teacup in front of Kyonko, then myself. Then he laid down a pair of teaspoons. It was like a ballet. I watched with fascination as he continued the ritual.

Kyonko hadn't moved. Her head was still down.

Yuuki finished the ritual, then went back to the kitchen. A moment later he returned empty-handed and stood near Yuki.

Yuki stood up and turned towards him and spoke.

"The situation has changed. I will agree to synchronize with you if you wish."

The gentle giant said, "Yes. You may proceed."

So, Yuuki was still a Humanoid Interface. I was a bit relieved. He wasn't totally crazy. Synchronization? But wouldn't that mean that Yuki would confirm the deception that she had already suspected? If it was confirmed, I knew that Yuki would inform me immediately, because she knew it would hurt Kyonko and I'd feel terrible about it, and that I would immediately want to know about it so I could act to protect my sister.

Yuki stepped closer to him and looked up at his face. He was more than a head taller than her. She said, "There is risk. You may overload. Permanent damage cannot be ruled out."

"I see."

Yuuki lowered himself to the floor and laid out straight. He placed his arms along his sides like a manniquin.

I was becoming worried for the gentle giant. If Yuki's epiphany overloaded his mind there was a good chance that he might never stand up ever again.

I began to intervene, then I changed my mind. I knew that on a sideband communication channel Yuki would have almost certainly communicated the risks to Yuuki in detail and with a probability analysis before he accepted. He must have analyzed her offer to synchronize and had judged that the risk to him would be acceptable. I thought that he was either very brave, or very foolish.

She imitated him and laid herself out also. I didn't think that was strictly necessary, but it was a nice gesture.

He said, "Proceed."

"Synchronizing."

1 second.

The lights dimmed. What?

2 seconds.

3 seconds.

4 seconds.

5 seconds.

The lights returned.

6 seconds.

Yuuki sat upright. His neutral expression didn't change.

Yuki was frozen.

Yuuki looked at his counterpart. "She is damaged. Emergency mode."

What happened next was shocking.

Yuki suffered a clonic seizure. It was horrific. Her arms and legs were spasming back and forth across the floor faster than the eye could see. Haruhi raised her hand to her mouth.

One of the spams destroyed the leg of the table. The teacups crashed and shattered.

Yuuki laid his body on top of hers for protection. He wrapped his arms around her own. He used his legs to keep hers from thrashing.

"I must initiate her auto-recovery sequence."

He then gently placed his large hand on her forehead. There was a glow. Her spams slowed then stopped. The couple remained embraced together for maybe half a minute.

Then Yuki woke up. She blinked her eyes rapidly.

Yuuki rolled off her and sat up.

Yuki also sat up. She looked towards him.

"Thank you. I apologize for the reaction. I did not know."

"Not necessary. The apology is mine. I should have anticipated."

"Not necessary."

"You understand?"

"Yes, beautiful."

Yuki looked at me, then Yuuki. They both had a small.. smile? What?

At that moment I realized that Kyonko was gone.

* * *

She wasn't hard to find. Haruhi tried to follow. I quickly shook my head. She nodded and went back to minister to Yuki.

Kyonko was in the side room, the same room where I had spent three years in suspended animation with Asahina to shift ourselves forward in time without a TPDD. Kyonko was sitting down on one of the tatami mats. She wouldn't look at me.

I sat next to her.

"Hey, it's okay kiddo. Stop the pity party, will ya? Everything is fine."

"..."

"You didn't hurt him. You never hurt him at all."

She looked up at me.

"You think so?"

"I know it. Yuki was wrong, there never was any instability. He was fine the whole time."

She rubbed a tear from her eye onto her cardigan.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure. He didn't take Haruki's powers. He didn't change anything at all."

I held my hand out.

"C'mon."

She hesitated, then took my hand. We walked together arm-in-arm back to the main room. She let go of my hand, then walked over to where Yuuki was standing and looked up at him.

"I'm sorry."

"Not necessary."

She looked over at us.

"I want to stay with him overnight."

Several emotions played over me in rapid succession.

"Don't worry, we are just going to talk."

Yuuki looked at Yuki. "Please, stay as well. There is much we can discuss."

"Yes."

Haruhi piped up, "Can I stay too?"

Wait, what?

Yuuki looked at her. "Yes, if we are all agreed."

They were.

I was about to interrupt, then stopped. What could I say?

I was getting very mixed emotions about this.

My promise of secrecy was to Yuki herself. If she wanted to disclose any information of course that was her choice to make, not mine. It wasn't like I did anything wrong back then anyway. It all happened 8 years ago, long before Haruhi and I had any sort of real relationship. Haruhi was a mature woman. We loved each other. She would understand.

It was just so.. embarrassing.

Kyonko skipped over to me, her ponytail bouncing up and down. "Kyon, please be a dear and go to the house and babysit my brother tonight, will you? Here's the key."

"Kyonko.."

"Please. And you need to make the preparations for tomorrow with Koizumi."

"Kyonko, you are not going to get much sleep tonight. Your part of the plan is the hardest. You'll be exhausted tomorrow."

"It's okay. I know I can do it."

"..."

She kissed my cheek. "Goodnight, Kyon."

I left.

And so Day 1 finally ended.


	9. Pregame Prep

**Chapter 9: Pregame Prep**

**Day 2**

I slept overnight at Kyonko's house.

Shamisen awoke me in the middle of the night. He's a male calico cat, very rare. I checked him. Still male here.

I wondered if he would talk for me. "Shamisen! How you doing, huh?"

He looked at me in silence. He licked his paw.

That didn't mean anything. He was trained to only speak while in my presence, I mean, in Kyonko's presence. It's possible this version doesn't talk. Or he just doesn't recognize me here. There was no way for me to know.

I got Shamisen when Haruhi filmed that silly science fiction movie. Hmm, that happened early in the autumn of our first year. So assuming the timeline is roughly the same then the cat has been here for about eight weeks.

I ate breakfast and waited for Koizumi to show up.

Kyonko's bratty brother was a nuisance. He chased the poor cat around and kept getting into other things. Per the plan I sent him over to the neighbor's house to play.

Koizumi arrived.

She was all business. Her demeanor was completely different from the first time we met. Instead of the Stepford smile she seemed, well, curt. Even a bit grumpy.

She spent most of the time flicking her finger back and forth on the touchscreen of a 10" computer tablet. She was also mumbling to herself. Being a web designer I was pretty familiar with computer tech, but I had never seen a tablet so sophisticated before.

It was holographic. It was divided up into sectors, some with a continuously scrolling text, others with line graphs or a world map. There many symbols and images I didn't recognize.

She finally looked up at me.

"Ok, we need to prep you."

She pulled out a weird looking pistol. It looked a bit like the needle gun that Yuki created for me to shoot her human counterpart in my universe back on December 18.

"Kyon, I'm going to inject a couple of subcutaneous transceivers under your skin. You will get two, one behind each ear."

She turned her head and touched a spot behind her own ear. I looked where she was pointing at. I saw a faint circular object, about the size of a nickel, buldging maybe a millimeter or so under her skin. I touched it. It was a hard lump.

She put the injector gun behind my left ear.

"This won't hurt.."

"Ow!"

"..much."

She repeated with my right ear.

"The left ear is for my personal channel. You'll be able to hear me on that side. It's quasi-subvocal."

So that explained her mumbling earlier. She was talking to her other cohorts in the Organization.

"The right ear is for SkyCom. I already read you in, up to purple level. You're not a P.O.I. any longer so it doesn't really matter anyway."

"What the heck are you talking about?"

She looked at me in that same annoyed way that Kyonko did whenever I said something stupid or foolish. She started again.

"You are no longer a P.O.I. A Person Of Interest. These are the key people that we monitor around the world. One of the jobs of the Organization is to manage the P.O.I.s. For example, people like Haruki and Kyonko.

"In your world you aren't a P.O.I. anymore. Haruhi still is, but minimal priority. There are four others on your world."

"Wait, what? Why not me? And four others? Who?"

She sighed.

"Your Haruhi is pretty stable now. She doesn't need much watching. And you are important only to the extent she is, or was. She's less important now and so you're even less. We dropped you. That's why I can talk to you like this. If you were a P.O.I. I would have to put my mask on. Frankly, it's a pain."

I felt a bit insulted. She continued on:

"Kyon, don't take this the wrong way. The Organization has known you for many years. You're pretty reliable. So I read you in to purple level. It will save time. We working on a tight clock here."

"Purple? What's higher than purple?"

She gave me the I'm-an-idiot look again.

"You know I can't tell you that."

"Four others?"

"C'mon Kyon. You think Haruki is the only problem that we deal with? You won't believe the eldritch terrors, aliens, and other weirdos that we have to deal with each and every day. There are things that come and land on this planet that you would not believe. It's our job to manage their activity on Earth."

"Oh I get it, your Organization is basically like the Men in Black."

"Pshaw. Those jokers in Manhattan don't have 10% of the problems that we deal with."

"Wait, MiB is real?"

"Nevermind that. The point is that we have to deal with anything that comes to Earth that's a potential threat. Just last week Thor and Loki came down here. It was a mess to clean up."

"Oh, I see! You guys are like S.H.I.E.L.D."

She barked a laugh.

"Those bloody amateurs? Nick Fury is a clueless twit."

"Wait, that's real too?"

"I told you nevermind that. Anyway, SkyCom is the Organization's main tactical network for crisis management. It runs realtime. You'll be hearing verbal reports, updates, and status info, coming from various stations around the world.

"When Haruki triggers the closed space, you'll start to hear chatter in your right ear coming from SkyCom. The MAGI think this one is going to be the mother of all closed spaces, so the chatter may get a bit frantic. If it bothers you too much, just tap the transceiver to turn it off."

"The MAGI?"

"Yeah."

"Uhm, Koizumi, can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"By any chance do you happen to know if Haruki has watched the movies _Men in Black_ , _The Avengers_ , and the anime _Neon Genesis Evangelion_?"

She flicked around on her tablet and looked at the screen. "Yeah, all three. So?"

"Nevermind."

What amazed me was that we were not all puddles of Instrumentality goo by now.

Koizumi finished my briefing. She was right, the timing was going to be very tight. An hour or so from now there will be literally only a handful of seconds difference between the survival of the Earth or its end.

What bothered me is that it seemed like this kind of end-of-the-world crisis stuff happened routinely.

Koizumi left to assume her station at Haruki's alien-hunting meeting point.

* * *

Kyonko arrived about 10 AM.

"Hey bro, I'm here!"

"Hey kid! Did you have fun last night?"

"Oh, it was a blast! It was like a slumber party. We stayed up until 3 AM."

"Sounds like fun."

She looked at me. "Kyon, can I ask you why you have a fetish about ponytails?" She wagged hers.

Oh. "So they told you.. Well, I dunno why really.. I just do."

"Well if that's your worst secret, then you must be a pretty nice guy."

"Uh, thanks, I think."

She rubbed her eyes.

"Tired?"

"Yeah, I didn't sleep at all. At first Yuuki offered to let Haruhi and me share his kingsize bed. He'd stay in the kitchen. He really doesn't need a bed anyway. And why so big? Anyway, it sounded good to me, but I think Haruhi got a little creeped out about the idea of sharing the same bed with her own husband's gender opposite clone."

Hey I can understand that.

"So anyway, Haruhi and I crashed over in the side room, on the separate mats. She, uh, snores. Loud."

She does. Like a buzzsaw.

"Sorry, I completely forgot about that. I use industrial grade earplugs. I have a gross of them in a box at home. I should have brought some with me."

"Yeah, well, the noise was killing me. So around 4 AM I snuck into Yuuki's bedroom and slept with him."

"You what?"

"Oh chill, Kyon. We only got to second base."

"What!?"

"I'm kidding! I'm not even sure what 'second base' really means. Relax. You are so gullible sometimes."

"Oh, okay."

"Definitely first base."

"What!?"

"Pushing your buttons is just no fun. You're too easy."

"Just stop it."

"I'm sorry."

"That's ok. It's just that I'm kind of really stressed out right now."

"Oh.. I'm really sorry. I'm pretty frazzled too."

Later, I remembered that she told me she didn't sleep a wink. So what the heck _was_ she doing in that bedroom alone with Yuuki from 4 AM to 8 AM anyway?

I never did find out.

And so, with all preparations complete, we waited for the arrival of a god.


	10. The Realization of Haruki Suzumiya

**Chapter 10: The Realization of Haruki Suzumiya**

It was 11 AM. This was the scheduled time for the start of Haruki's alien hunt. Koizumi and Yuuki were both now at the brigade meeting point.

{ Koizumi: He's here. He's yelling for Kyonko. }

I jumped. The sound was coming from my left ear.

"Oh, hi Koizumi. You startled me."

{ Koizumi: Shut up. Mic check }

"I hear you."

{ Koizumi: I said shut up. Don't talk to me like that. You're on station. Never talk back to me aloud like that, ever. Always use sub-vocal. That's basic tradecraft. }

{ Kyon: Whatever }

{ Koizumi: That's better. Boy, you really are a noob. Kyonko is not supposed to know about the transceivers. She's a P.O.I. So keep quiet. }

{ Kyon: All right already. Geez }

I put my hands in my pockets.

Kyonko sat upright on her bed. She was wearing her high-school uniform and cardigan. Earlier in the morning while she was away I had rumpled it up. The idea was to make it look as if she had collapsed into bed last night without first taking it off.

We reviewed the plan together one more time. Koizumi listened in and she signed off on it.

{ Koizumi: Plan looks good. He's heading your way. About 12 minutes. }

"Kyonko, he's coming here in 12 minutes."

{ SkyCom: Mic check }

We waited.

{ Koizumi: Almost there. About 2 minutes. }

"Ok Kyonko, give me the cardigan and get in bed."

I put the cardigan on the floor.

{ Koizumi: Kyon, I see an open checklist item, the door. You forget? }

"Dang, I need to go down and check the front door. I think I might have left it unlocked. I'll be right back."

I ran downstairs to check.

An antique green teacup fell from the bookshelf. It crashed on the floor.

Kyonko was startled and sat up. She saw her little brother. He was standing next to the broken pieces, giggling.

"You brat, you broke it! That teacup is an heirloom that I got from Grandma Ayu!"

Kyonko picked up a pillow and threw it at him. "Get out of here! You're supposed to be at the neighbor's house."

She quickly swept the pieces under the bed.

The boy giggled again and ran downstairs. I spotted him going out the back door.

Kyonko was right, the kid is a twerp. I went and locked the back door to keep him outside. I didn't see the cat anywhere.

{ Koizumi: He's running now. 30 seconds. }

I ran back up to the bedroom.

"Kyonko, he's almost here. Get ready."

She got in bed again. She laid down on her left side.

"No, roll over. You're facing the wrong way. You're supposed to face the wall with your left side up so he can see it. And we don't want him to see your face, remember?"

"I know what I'm doing. I'll be ready when he comes in."

The plan required her to cry really hard. So I assumed she'd dig her fingernails into her palms, or something like that. Instead she started bouncing up and down sideways on the bed. I figured out what she was doing. She had another method to quickly generate a lot of pain.

I winced in sympathy. "Hang in there, kid."

"I'm.. ok.."

Haruki was beating on the door. He bellowed "Kyon-kooooo!"

"It's game on. I'm going. Stay strong."

"Be careful, Kyon."

* * *

I went downstairs.

I opened the front door. "Stop banging on the door. What the heck do you want?"

I heard Kyonko upstairs. She was sobbing really hard. Good, keep it up.

Haruki looked at me. "Oh, it's you again. You're her brother right?"

With the door open Haruki could now hear Kyonko's sobs upstairs.

He glared. Before I could answer he said, "It sounds like she's bawling her eyes out up there. What did you do to her?"

"Me? Nothing."

"The hell. I never heard her cry like that before. She's really hurt! You bastard, you hurt her didn't you?"

"It wasn't me. Nobody else is here. Come up and I'll show you."

{ Koizumi: Kyon, you went off script! Don't do that! Don't tell him nobody else is there! }

The Superman squinted at me. "Liar! She was fine before you got here!"

"Just come up."

"You just said there's nobody else here! It had to be you! You came in to town just to beat her up!"

"No, uh, hey.."

Then he did something I didn't expect. He punched me right in the eye.

I dropped to the deck like a bag of hammers. I was out. He stepped over me. Meanwhile the world spun around me.

He started to go up the stairs.

{ Koizumi: That idiot. Have them update plan 12 with the new configuration. Then do a re-sim, stat. }

{ SkyCom: Re-running the sim on plan 12. Uh, the MAGI say we are screwed now. }

Indeed. This was not going according to plan at all. It was crucial that I remain with Haruki the whole time. He and I needed to enter the bedroom at the same time, or me slightly ahead. I was the one that was supposed to confront him. It was critical that Haruki never talk to Kyonko, nor see her face.

I must be the accuser, not Kyonko.

{ Koizumi: Kyon, wake up! He's getting too far ahead of you. Move! }

Somehow, through sheer force of will I staggered upright. I began to climb the stairs. My head was reeling. It seemed like the stairs were rotating around me.

{ Koizumi: Kyon, up! Go! Faster! }

I grabbed the railing with both hands. I worked my way up. The stairs were still spinning.

For some reason Haruki was walking up slowly. Maybe he was hesitant because he was still trying to figure out the real situation. I thanked my lucky stars. But I still couldn't reach him before he got to the top.

{ Koizumo: Come on, Kyon, move! Move your legs! }

Somehow I was able to catch up to him just before he entered the bedroom.

I willed my body to interpose itself between Haruki and Kyonko. I finally blocked him as planned. Phew, that was too close. I was so dizzy.

Superman stood before me. "Get out of my way. Can't you see she's crying?"

"Of course she's crying, you bastard!"

"Kyonko, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She ignored him as planned. She kept her head facing towards the wall away from him.

"Don't look at her, look at me! I'll tell you exactly why she's crying!"

"Why?"

"It's because of this!"

I grabbed the bottom flap of her blouse on the left side and yanked it up.

I accidentally tore it.. oops, that wasn't in the plan. So sorry, Kyonko. It did make the effect more dramatic though.

Haruki finally saw what we wanted him to see.

He gasped. "What happened to her?"

"You did this to her!"

"What? Like hell I did."

"Yes like hell you did! You've been carrying her around like a football.. all that running around, banging and bruising her left side as you carried her around on your right. She's not a pigskin you moron!"

"I.. I did this?"

"Yes!"

"Why didn't she tell me?"

"Because she didn't want to hurt your feelings, you big lummox! She kept silent because she wanted to stay friends with you!"

As planned, Kyonko kept her face away from him. The sobs reduced to a few whimpers.

He was horrified.

In my right ear I began to hear simultaneous overlapping chatter. Several voices spoke in quick staccatos.

{ SkyCom: Thar she blows / A big one / Started in Kamchatka as predicted / No reading on my scope / It's there, a huge core / started at 50 kilometers wide / expanding 400 knots }

{ Koizumi: Kyon, it's starting. }

Haruki tried to go around me. "I'm taking her to the hospital."

{ SkyCom: I think it's going supersonic / Blue team is in the wrong position / Wont catch it / Blue missed / Where's red team? }

I glared. "Don't you touch her!"

{ SkyCom: It's massive / Supersonic / 1500 knots / Can't get a vector on it }

He moved forward. I blocked him.

{ SkyCom: Hey it jumped / Acceleration non-linear / It's gone hypersonic / crossing the equator south }

"Move out of my way. I'm taking her."

{ SkyCom: We're losing transmission links / No reading / It's too fast }

"Get out!" I shoved him back.

{ SkyCom: It's gone beyond hypersonic, hurry! }

"She's coming with me to the doctor."

{ SkyCom: Wavefront is 20 degrees south / Can't get a bead on it / Where is red team? }

"Get back!" I shoved him out of the bedroom. He was now standing near the upper stair landing.

{ SkyCom: Find the entrance yet? / Blue team mis-positioned, they're out }

"Yeah? Make me."

{ SkyCom: Red team can't touch it / 30 degrees south.. accelerating even more. Is that even possible? }

He knew I was ready to collapse. He decided to wait me out. My head was swimming. I had to get in position, get oriented. This was it.

{ SkyCom: I lost the wavefront / Reset your vectors and try again }

{ Koizumi: Kyon, hurry up! }

Another shove. I was getting weaker. Could I do it? There, got him in position.

{ Koizumi: He's on the mark. Go for the kick. No, wait he moved.. wait.. }

{ SkyCom: Found it, wavefront 40 degrees south / This is ridiculous. We're in a sim aren't we? This ain't real.. }

He stepped back again. He was again standing right on the mark on the floor. Perfect.

{ Koizumi: Kyon, kick now! }

Earlier that morning I had practiced the kick dozens of times using a dummy in the basement that was properly weighted. The trick was to hit it with exactly 420 newtons of force. Too little and Haruki would land on the middle of the stairs and probably break his neck. Too much and he'd hit the far wall at the bottom of the landing.

With my last remaining strength I did the roundhouse kick like I practiced it. It was basically the same kick that King Leonidas used in the movie _300_. With one eye I couldn't triangulate, but I somehow nailed his sternum right on target. I sent him flying down the stairs.

He seemed to fall in slow motion. I was losing my sense of time.

{ Koizumi: Good one, Kyon! }

Bull's eye! He landed on his back on the rug at the bottom of the stairs. The rug had hidden pads. The pads absorbed the landing. Other than the bruise on his sternum the only thing Haruki had injured was his pride.

I collapsed.

{ SkyCom: Wavefront 50 degrees south / Holy cow / Where is red team already? }

Kyonko was still waiting for my signal.

{ Koizumi: Kyon, 10 seconds! Get her moving! }

With my last remaining strength I rolled my head to face towards the open bedroom door.

{ SkyCom: Wavefront 65 degrees south / The curve goes almost straight up }

{ Koizumi: Kyon, now! 8 seconds! }

In a hoarse whisper I rasped, "Kyonko.. go."

Kyonko yanked off the blanket and rushed down the stairs.

{ SkyCom: Wavefront 70 degrees south / Confirmed trans-hypersonic }

She ran down to the bottom of the stairs and cradled Haruki's head.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

{ Koizumi: She needs to talk faster! }

{ SkyCom: Wavefront 80 degrees south / Intensification at origin / It's sealed, no access / Red team can't get inside }

Haruki swallowed. "I'm fine. I'm going to disband the brigade."

{ SkyCom: 84 degrees south / Wavefront crossing McMurdo / Here it comes / 90 degrees south / That's it / We are boned }

"No, don't."

"You must hate me."

The closed space had surrounded the entire world in a spheroid of darkness.

"I don't hate you. I never have."

{ SkyCom: Singularity confirmed / We're enveloped 100% / It's game over, man, game over }

Everything turned a dismal gray. There was no color. The closed space had collapsed into a singularity.

It was over.

We lost.

{ Koizumi: [Expletive deleted] }

{ SkyCom: So close / I thought we woulda made it / We're toast }

"You're just saying that."

{ SkyCom: Goodbye Shirley / Adios muchachos / Mom I'll see you in heaven / Going offline now / Ending TACACS / That takes the biscuit / Jerry, I love you / Sayonara / That's all she wrote }

"That's not true. I like you a lot. I really do. You've taken me on the most amazing adventures. I've had so much fun."

{ SkyCom: Smoke 'em if you got 'em / Elvis has left the building }

{ Koizumi: You idiots get off the channel }

{ SkyCom: Make me / You and the horse you rode in on / Get stuffed }

"Aw c'mon. You're just saying that."

{ Koizumi: Never give up }

"No, I mean it. You just need to be more careful around me. I'm a girl. I'm kind of fragile. Just don't pick me up and toss me around, ok?"

"I'm really sorry. Really really sorry. I'll never do it again."

{ Koizumi: Never surrender }

"I know you won't. And if you accidentally do hurt me again I'll tell you right away. And you'll stop, right?"

"Right. Never again."

"Then.. I forgive you."

"And we can still be friends?"

"Yes, of course."

"Ok.. I'm still sorry. I'm really really sorry."

"I know you are. It's ok now. We're going to have fun together. We're going to hunt for aliens and time travellers and espers, and have lots of fun doing it."

{ Koizumi: We're not giving up }

"This is a nightmare. I must be dreaming."

"Then it's a good dream."

"Good how?"

"Because you'll remember it. You'll remember so that you'll be more careful around me next time."

"You're right. When I wake up I'll remember."

"Good. It's going to take time, but I think we're going to get to know each other a lot better. We're going to be great friends."

"Yeah."

"And you know what?"

"What?"

"I think it's even possible that you and I might fall in love someday."

{ SkyCom: Woah / You go girl / Hey }

"Wha..?"

"And so let me give you a little preview."

She picked up his head from the floor and kissed him fiercely on the lips.

And the kiss ended the world.


	11. Departure and Oblivion

**Chapter 11: Departure and Oblivion**

The world was surrounded by closed space, a singularity. It had ended.

And then a miracle happened.

Haruki unconsciously undid the singularity. According to the laws of physics that should not have been possible.

But the laws of physics never met someone like Haruki Suzumiya before.

* * *

**Day 3**

Kyonko, Yuuki and I stood in the foyer. Haruhi had already said her goodbyes and was outside chatting with Koizumi and Asahina. Yuki was off preparing for the return trip.

Kyonko looked me over. "Nice eye-patch."

"It's only temporary until the cornea transplant. The optic nerve is fine."

She approached me. "I like it. It makes you look like a big strong badass. And you know how much I like big strong men.."

"Stop teasing."

"You need a beard to go with it. It'd make you look totally evil."

"Heh. Maybe in another universe."

"You mean like that episode on Star Trek with the bearded Spock?"

"Something like that."

"Kyonko, that was a really good acting performance yesterday. Remind me never to play poker with you."

"I wasn't acting. Everything I did and said was true. Everything except the way I kicked my pain-level up to 11 to get my tear ducts really flowing just before Haruki arrived. That was the only thing."

"Still, you really kept a cool head."

"Yeah, well I think honesty is the best policy. You're the one that got the worst of it yesterday, not me."

She partially pulled up her blouse on the left side. "Look at that, all healed, good as new. Yuuki healed it with some gizmo."

"Why didn't he just do that to begin with?"

Yuuki spoke. "The device repairs tissue damage by triggering accelerated mitosis. The telomeres are shortened. Repeated use causes accelerated aging and chromosomal damage and possible metastasis."

I blinked. Kyonko translated for me. "He means it causes cancer if used too much. If he zapped me every time Haruki dinged me, I'd glow in the dark."

"Oh."

"You know, Kyon, you could have told me about Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. It would have made things a lot easier for me yesterday. After the singularity hit it looked like we were all dead. I was kind of panicking at the end there."

"Well, you didn't show it."

She touched her stomach. "I think I'm going to get a dyspeptic ulcer at age fifteen."

"Yeah, I biffed that one. I thought the dream kiss had already happened. I didn't realize that your timeline was different. I'm really sorry about not checking it with you first."

"Humph."

"Still, we're pretty lucky that Haruki thinks it was only a nightmare."

She smiled. "Yeah. It will help his recovery a lot. As soon as I walked into the brigade room this morning, he yanked the side of my blouse up to double-check. He saw no bruises and he was so happy. I kicked him and called him a pervert. You should have heard the apologies. They were endless!"

"Heh."

"So is there anything else you think I should know about?"

"Don't go on a skiing vacation over Christmas break."

"Really? Why?"

"There's a very good reason."

"Ok, whatever. I trust you."

"If the world changes and Haruki disappears, go to Kouyouen Academy."

Yuuki said, "That advice is not necessary. I assure you that I am stable, but thank you."

The big guy was fine. He would take care of her. She's a lucky girl.

I moved close to Kyonko. "Ok. It's time."

Kyonko teared up. I did too. She hugged me tightly.

"Thank you so much. For.. everything. You helped me so much. You saved me. I'll never forget you."

"I'm sorry, you will."

From her hug she looked up at my face questioningly, her eyes still teary. "Why? I don't understand."

Such are the rules of reality in the multiverse. Although her relationship with Haruki and Yuuki would remain resolved, the memory of how it happened, of my involvement, would vanish from her mind.

"Kyonko, as soon as we leave it will mean that we will literally have never existed in your universe. We never were, never are, and never will be. You won't remember me."

She made a wry smile. "Well that figures. My typical bad luck."

_And in the night, you'll hear me calling, calling_

"We're jury-rigging a workaround. The Nagatos are installing some kind of communication device that will automatically call me in an emergency. I'm not sure how it works exactly."

_And in your dreams, you'll see me falling, falling_

"It somehow detects you falling into big trouble and calls me."

"Kyon, wow, thanks." She released her hug and rubbed off a tear with the sleeve of her cardigan. "You know, I think I'll enjoy meeting you for the first time, every time. Keeps things fresh."

"Yeah."

_Breathe in the light, and say goodbye_

"Goodbye."

"Bye."

_Breathe in the light, I'll stay here in the shadows_

As I walked out the door, Kyonko's little brother caught my eye. He was standing off to the side, half hidden behind the door panel to the dining room. He was holding the cat.

I paused at the doorstep and turned to look at him. His eyes were gleaming. I stopped and stared. There was unspoken communication, a silent and deep understanding, as the little boy's eyes were locked with mine.

He made a small grin, showing a wisdom that was seemingly far beyond his seven young years. I then noticed that the cat's eyes were gleaming too.

I remembered the green teacup that fell and crashed. Wait, how could I possibly have known that? I was downstairs at the time. Kyonko had hidden the pieces.

_Since I was young I knew I'd find you_

Of course. Seven plus eight equals fifteen. It explained the eight year time displacement.

I returned the boy's grin with my own and left. I trotted to catch up with Haruhi. She hooked her arm in mine, then looked up at me with a question. "You think she's going to be okay?".

"Oh yes, she's going to be fine."

I never did learn how it was done. Was it Haruhi? Haruki?

Or was it Yuuki, possibly with help from Asahina? That seemed most likely.

To send his call for help, Yuuki had destroyed entire solar systems, whole suns. He had summoned me, her brother, across space and time, across universes, all to save the woman he loved.

And so her brother will stay in the shadows to watch over her. Protect her. In secret.

Because we are family.

And that's what families do.

_Our love was a song, sung by a dying sun_

_Breathe in the light, and say goodbye_

**The End**

* * *

**A/N:**

This final chapter was inspired by the [ending song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=822P87a773c) from the movie _Oblivion_ (2013) by the music group M83, as sung by Susanne Sundfør. (If the link does not work, it can be found on Google.) It is the official ending song for this story.

Click below to see the epilogue.

The next story in this series is _The Final Act of Haruki Suzumiya_. It can be found on FFN.


	12. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

Haruhi and I had left the front door wide open while were gone. At some point a family of raccoons had decided to take up residence. They made a mess of the whole place, finishing off the dry BBQ that I had so painstaking prepared. Pretty much everything in the kitchen was wrecked. I was relieved that my computer downstairs was okay.

A few days later I was playing Othello with Yuki.

Putting down my teacup I said, "Well, we won't be going there again anytime soon. Blowing up whole solar systems just to drop by to say 'hi' seems a bit extreme."

Yuki then made her move. She usually let me win about half the games unless I made a blunder, then she's merciless.

"The Data Integration Thought Entity agrees. That is why it is setting up a permanent mass-transfer hyperspace conduit using the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M31."

"Really? Hey, that's nice. Give the Entity my thanks."

I thought about it. That meant that we could go back and visit whenever we wanted. Hmm, we could work around the memory-wipe problem by using my younger brother as an intermediary. Not being from that universe meant he was immune.

"The Andromeda black hole is quite suitable as it is much larger than Sgr*A in our own galaxy. It consumes approximately two stellar masses per day."

Those solar systems were already circling the drain, so it was not like we were destroying anything that wasn't already toast anyway. And setting up the energy source in another galaxy seemed prudent. If that hyperspace conduit thing ever went ka-boom I'd be much happier knowing the resulting carnage would be happening in a galaxy far, far away.

That meant we could visit. I would be able to see my sister again.

I looked forward to our next meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this story with the hope that it would eventually become canon for Kyonko and her world. An alternate title for this story could be _Kyonko Begins_. My hope is that this story will set up a foundation for other fan authors to write stories about this delightful fan-created character.
> 
> A key notion is that the wild stallion that is Haruki must first be 'broken-in' before any positive or fun stories could take place. Otherwise such a powerful man left unchecked would make all such stories unremittingly dark.
> 
> The memory-wipe concept was intended to allow you to have Kyonko meet her counterparts for the first time in your own stories.
> 
> One such sequel is _The Final Act of Haruki Suzumiya_. It can be found on FFN.
> 
> Have fun.


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